


You’re Floating, Quackity

by thismachinekillsstraightmen



Category: Dream SMP- fandom, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alcoholic Jschlatt, Alexis | Quackity-centric, Broken Bones, Explosions, Fainting, Gen, Hybrid Alexis | Quackity, Hybrid Floris | Fundy, Hybrid Jschlatt (Video Blogging RPF), Hybrid Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Hybrid Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Hybrid Toby Smith | Tubbo, Hybrid discrimination, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Injury, Jschlatt Being a Jerk (Video Blogging RPF), Niki is mentioned, Parent Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Protective Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Tubbo and Fundy are in this very briefly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:47:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28402698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thismachinekillsstraightmen/pseuds/thismachinekillsstraightmen
Summary: “Physically, you’re on the ground, but you’re still floating, getting thrown backwards.”Or: Quackity learns to move forward.Can be read as a prequel to my fic, ‘Us Against the (Bleeding) World’, or as a stand-alone.TW: Explosions, Injury, Broken Bones, Hybrid Discrimination/Shaming, Alcoholism, Fainting, Mention of Character Death, Falling from Tall Height, Swearing.Rated Mature for swearing and injury.
Relationships: Alexis | Quackity & Floris | Fundy, Alexis | Quackity & Jschlatt, Alexis | Quackity & Phil Watson, Alexis | Quackity & Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Alexis | Quackity & Toby Smith | Tubbo, Alexis | Quackity & TommyInnit, Alexis | Quackity & Wilbur Soot
Comments: 18
Kudos: 372





	You’re Floating, Quackity

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ramenbitch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ramenbitch/gifts).



> i saw ramenbitch leave a request somewhere along the lines of “philza and the rest of the sleepy boys help quackity with his wings when they see they’re injured” and i got to work

_The rest of the SMP was scattered around L’Manburg, chatting amongst each other as they reacquainted themselves with their old country._

_Quackity found himself walking over to the podium, the familiar sound of the wood creaking under his feet welcoming his return. Walking to the front, Quackity found himself staring down to the deserted plaza._

_He stood there for only a couple of minutes, but relived an eternity’s worth of memories within that time._

_Schlatt exiling Tommy and Wilbur._

_Schlatt getting Technoblade to assassinate Tubbo, accidentally taking a life from both Quackity and Schlatt in the process._

_Schlatt screaming at Niki to leave Manberg after she stood up for Tubbo._

_( And if Quackity had turned around and craned his head far enough, he could have seen where the White House once stood, could have seen the spot where Schlatt screamed at him, berated him for trying to preserve the fate of the building._

_The spot where he killed Schlatt. )_

_So much life had been lost from that podium._

_But then he raised his head and looked back out to his friends, and felt a little more hopeful._

_Tubbo’s acceptance speech for the presidency still sat heavy in his head, and although Quackity couldn’t remember exactly what he said, he could still remember how optimistic for the future the words made him feel._

_Life had been lost from that podium, but life could easily come back._

_Quackity stepped off the podium, his step forward symbolic of moving forward with his life._

_And then the TNT set off, and he was thrown backwards._

“Oh my god.”

Quackity snapped out of his daze, turning to see Philza standing at the entrance of the cave where he had hidden to tend to his wounds alone.

“ _Fucking-_ get out!”

Where he had taken off his chestplate, exposing his wings to the open air.

“You have wings too?”

“Would you- would you keep your fucking voice down, man?” Quackity stumbled, rushing forward and dragging Philza deeper into the cave, trying to keep the number of passersby at a minimum, ignoring the dizziness caused by his sudden movements. 

“Why didn’t you tell us that your wings got hurt? Niki would’ve come and gotten me to help you!”

“My wings aren’t hurt, alright? And even if they were, I wouldn’t tell anyone because- fucking, because no one even knows I have them.”

_“What the hell are those things on your back?”_

_Quackity jumped from Schlatt’s sudden presence, leaning backwards onto his desk to cover his startle. The two had come to the White House alone, and had set off to find their new offices, preparing for their first day as the new leaders of Manberg tomorrow._

_( Quackity was looking forward to showing Schlatt around the building, but when he mentioned that he had built it with Tommy and Wilbur, something dark passed over the man’s face, and he pushed past Quackity and through the first open door he found, shutting the door behind him._

_Quackity could hear a thud of items fall onto the desk inside, and had wondered what Schlatt was haphazardly placing._

_Looking at Schlatt now, who was leaning heavily against Quackity’s open door with a glazed look in his eyes, Quackity realized the items in question had probably been alcohol. )_

_“They’re uh- they’re my wings.”_

_Quackity cringed when he said it. He was wary of sharing that he was a hybrid, and preferred to keep his wings hidden underneath his clothes. It was straining, but it was safer._

_But with him and Schlatt alone in the White House, Quackity decided to let his wings out of hiding while he got settled. He figured that with a cabinet of hybrids now running the country, there was no need to hide his wings anymore._

_He was wrong._

_“They’re ugly.”_

_“I- what?”_

_“I said, your wings are ugly. God, do birds have bad hearing too?”_

_“But- literally everyone who’s working with us is a hybrid. What’s wrong with my wings?”_

_“The fact that they’re ugly, that’s what’s wrong.”_

_“Would you stop calling them ugly? God, what’s gotten into you?”_

_Schlatt stared Quackity down, walking into his office and stopping only when he was directly in front of Quackity, the winged hybrid ignoring the urge to lean farther backwards._

_“Tubbo and I have horns. We can fight with them, ram into people with them, keep our enemies down with them. Fundy has fox ears, enhanced senses that can keep him on the lookout at all times. We can use our abilities to defend ourselves, stand our ground. You know what you can do with wings, Quackity?”_

_Schlatt leaned forward, caging Quackity in between his arms as he placed his hands on the desk._

_“You can only fucking fly away. You can only be a fucking coward.”_

_Schlatt’s words felt like a stone, aimed at Quackity’s wings and breaking them, keeping him chained to the ground._

_“Now, what kind of message would that send to our people? That there’s a coward in power?”_

_He was chained to the ground, and Schlatt was breaking his wings, bone by bone. He couldn’t move, he couldn’t speak._

_Schlatt pushed himself back up, turning around and walking out of Quackity’s office. Grabbing the doorknob to close the door, Schlatt turned back to Quackity._

_“Whatever you did to hide your wings before, I expect you to do again for tomorrow. And every day after that, too. I don’t wanna- I don’t wanna see those fucking ugly things again, you hear me?”_

_Quackity finally brought himself to nod._

_“Yes- yes, sir.”_

“They’re- they’re fucking ugly, Philza, I can’t have people see me like this-”

“Hey, hey, they’re not ugly, alright?” Philza tried to reassure Quackity, mistaking his insecurity as being fueled by his injury. “They’re just damaged, we can fix them-”

“There’s no fucking point, Philza! If I fix them, I’ll want to use them, and then everyone will see me use them, and they’ll think I look hideous, and-”

Quackity continued his self-hating tirade, his own words drowning out as he saw Philza’s face dropped from confused to heartbroken.

“Quackity, you don’t look hideous with your wings, I promise.”

“You’re fucking- you’re just saying that because you have them too. That doesn’t mean anything to me.”

Quackity dropped down onto the floor of the cave, burying his hands in his face while trying to use his wings to hide himself from the world.

But he felt a shower of pain rain down on him when he tried to do so, and as he cried out and fell backwards, Philza rushed forward to grab him before he could hit the ground and irritate his wings even more.

  
  


“How did this even happen, Quackity?” Philza whispered as he set him down again, the younger of the two letting out a small grunt of pain from his back hitting the wall.

“I don’t know.”

He knew.

_Quackity screamed as the TNT set him flying into the air, broken wood and debris cutting into him as he fell back down from the sky and into a nearby lake._

_The momentum from the TNT kept him moving quickly through the water, pushing him to the bottom of the lake within seconds. And although his netherite armor mostly served its purpose of protecting Quackity, the sudden and quick contact with the floor caused his chest plate to break, leaving his wings to absorb the rest of the blow._

_Quackity screamed again, his voice silenced into bubbles in the water._

“Quackity, I can’t treat you like this. The stuff you got to treat yourself is nowhere near enough for what we need to fix your wings.”

“Then- fucking, don’t fix them then,” Quackity said, his speech halting for a second as he felt himself beginning to black out.

“You can’t even move, Quackity, I have to fix them!” Philza took off his hat and ran his free hand through his hair, trying to think of the best way to resolve the situation he had quite literally walked into.

“I’ll run out and get Niki-”

“ _No._ ”

“I’ll run out and get what I need, then. Stay here, okay?”

The last thing Quackity saw before he finally blacked out was Philza at the entrance of the cave again, spreading his wings to take off.

~~~

When Quackity woke up, the first thing he noticed was that he was back at the podium. 

He was in a hidden room at the bottom, where the stairs met the grass, and laying on his stomach. He braced himself when he heard footsteps approaching. 

The door opened, and Quackity let himself relax a little when he saw Philza walk in, the door closing quickly behind him.

“Morning,” the older of the two greeted, sitting down next to Quackity and leaning against the wall. “I was about to leave the cave when I heard you fall over, and I figured it was safer to keep you in L’Manburg.”

“Yeah, I think I remember a little bit of you bringing me back here.”

_Quackity opened his eyes, groaning in pain before slumping over, wanting nothing more than to fall asleep again._

_“Hey, hey, I’ve got you, don’t worry,” Philza whispered, the boy in his arms while he flew close to the ground. Quackity shot his eyes open again when he realized they had left the cave, trying to struggle out of Philza’s grip._

_“The cave, we have to go back to the cave-”_

_“I couldn’t leave you in the cave, Quackity, night was coming and mobs were going to spawn. It’s safer to keep you in L’Manburg.”_

_“They’ll see me with my wings, Philza, I’m begging you, please, take me back-”_

_“I’m not taking you back, alright? I’m going to find a safe place to hide you in, and we can keep you here until your wings are healed.”_

_Quackity weakly turned his head back to look at Philza while he pleaded, but was silenced by the look of panic on his face, the older hybrid hurriedly searching for a place to hide Quackity in before the night ended._

_“The podium,” Quackity quietly let out, his fatigue beginning to get to him again as he finally succumbed to his fate of being taken care of._

_“The podium?”_

_“There’s a- there’s a panic room, by the first set of stairs. We built it after the election. If you push on the wall it should- it should open.”_

_“Alright, the podium then,” Philza worriedly replied, his wings picking up the tempo and getting them to the podium in less than a minute. “Which wall, Quackity?”_

_But Quackity had fallen asleep again._

“So, you uh, found the wall in the end.”

Philza let out a weak laugh. “You’ll wish you were awake to see it. Let’s hope no one saw me pushing at the walls with my feet while I tried not to wake you up.”

Quackity let out a laugh from picturing the moment, but let out a wince when the pain in his wings settled in again.

“I was able to bandage your wings the night I brought you here,” Philza said, stretching his arm out to set his hand on Quackity’s back, where wings met skin. “But then everyone decided to hold a quick service for Wilbur the next day, so I had to leave you for most of yesterday. You were still sleeping when I checked up on you quickly, though.”

“I- I slept through the whole day?”

“Yeah. Tommy asked where you were, by the way. He actually asked me to look for you the night I found you. I told him that you decided to leave the server for a bit, since you and Schlatt had a... complex history.”

Quackity let out another laugh, but this one was empty. “Complex is definitely the right word for us.”

If Philza heard him, he didn’t respond, staring off into the distance as he let the world fall away.

“Phil?”

Philza jumped, Quackity finally snapping him back into reality. “Sorry, zoned out. I was just thinking.”

Philza and Quackity sat in silence, Quackity looking at Philza, Philza still staring into nothing.

“Thinking about Wilbur?”

Philza sighed, and turned to face Quackity.

“Yeah, thinking about Wilbur.”

Deciding to test his resilience, Quackity began pushing himself up to a sitting position, controlling the look on his face as daggers of pain dug into him.

Philza stretched his arms out to help Quackity as he said, “Hey, hold on, you shouldn’t be trying to sit up on your own yet-”

“I’m sorry.”

Philza shot his arms back, his face confused.

“For what?”

“For letting Schlatt exile Tommy and Wilbur. For letting Wilbur go insane. Fucking- I should’ve stood up to Schlatt, make him let the two of them stay, but I didn’t. And then we had the TNT, and you have to take care of me because I’m too fucking scared to let anyone else see me.”

Philza just stared at Quackity, his arms still hanging in the air as he processed what Quackity told him.

“Quackity, look.”

Philza brought his arms forward again, laying his hands on Quackity’s shoulders.

“I asked around at the service, trying to figure out what happened. I mean, the Wilbur I knew would’ve never done this. The Wilbur I knew-”

Philza’s voice broke, and his hands unconsciously tightened their grip as he looked down and cleared his throat. 

“The Wilbur you knew died when I let him be exiled,” Quackity replied, his voice a hushed whisper as he tried to stop himself from crying too.

“It’s not that simple, Quackity.”

Looking up to Quackity again, Philza continued.

“The Wilbur I knew wouldn’t have set off TNT to destroy the country he created. But then I talked to Tommy, and he said that he thinks Wilbur would’ve lost it, no matter if he stayed in L’Manburg or not. He- he thought he was the best thing for the country, you know? And if he wasn’t able to control it, he thought it would just fall apart. 

“The Wilbur I knew died when he realized he couldn’t control everything that happened to him. Exile or no exile, he still needed to control his own destiny. No one could’ve predicted that his destiny would be the one of- you know.”

Philza’s face turned into a sorrowful one, and he let his arms fall to his sides as he stared at his hands.

“Do you- when something bad happens to you, do you ever just zone out, think about the exact moment where everything went wrong?”

Philza looked back up at Quackity, and Quackity saw in his tired eyes, his set jaw, his hands constantly clenching and unclenching, what the answer to his question would be.

“Yes.”

~~~

Night had fallen again when Quackity decided to try and stand up.

_( “I’ll be back tomorrow, okay? Techno’s gone into hiding, and I want to check up on him.”_

_“Alright. Tell him I said hi. See you then, Phil.”_

_“Don’t try moving while I’m gone, alright? You’ve exerted yourself enough for the day.” )_

Quackity knew it had been less than an hour since Philza left, but he was getting antsy, being stuck in the small room alone.

_“In my time of need, everyone left!”_

_Schlatt had gone insane._

_Quackity figured it had happened long ago, but standing in the van with the rest of his allies, all their weapons drawn at his friend-turned-foe while he screamed out his manic speech, he had never been more sure of the diagnosis then._

_Schlatt had been circling around, making eye contact with everyone else while he spoke._

_But when he finally stopped screaming, he let his eyes fall to Quackity._

_“You left me.”_

_The anger in Schlatt’s eyes melted into sadness, and Quackity was chained to the ground again, unable to talk, unable to breathe as he stared into those eyes._

He could feel Schlatt’s glare then, his words ringing in his head as he closed his eyes and wrapped himself in his wings.

_You left me._

_You left me._

_YOU LEFT ME-_

And so Quackity left again.

Pushing himself up and through the hidden door, Quackity ran from the podium, preferring the gaze of his friends over the eyes watching down on him in that confined space.

Adrenaline pumping through his veins, Quackity only began to slow down when his wings started hurting again, his pulse racing as he slowed to a walk. Luckily, his legs hadn’t been hurt in the explosion, so he was able to make it near a bench before he finally collapsed onto it, the little energy he had all used up.

Shakily drawing in his breath again, Quackity put his hands into his face, blocking out the setting sun from his view as he tried to block out the memories.

God, he felt exhausted. From the injuries, from the memories, from _everything._

He had no idea how he was going to make it back to the podium, but he knew he had to go back soon since the bandages stopped him from hiding his-

“Big Q?”

Wings.

Of all the benches Quackity had to end up at, it was Tommy and Tubbo’s beloved bench.

Hoping he could disappear if he moved slowly enough, Quackity begrudgingly uncovered his face and turned around, making eye contact with a lone Tommy.

If Tommy could see the horror in Quackity’s face, it didn’t affect him, his face morphing into pure joy as he yelled out;

_“BIG Q!”_

“Hey- hey Tommy,” Quackity said, caught off guard by Tommy jumping over the bench and hugging him.

“What are you doing back here so soon? My dad told me you left!” Tommy excitedly said in his classic half-yelling voice, pulling back from the hug and now sitting next to Quackity.

“Hey- keep your voice down, alright? I don’t think I have the energy right now to talk to anyone else.”

“And you’ve got _wings,_ too! Did you get a potion that gave you them or something?”

Quackity stared dumbly at Tommy for a second, genuinely wondering if the boy thought there were potions that gave you wings.

“No, I- I didn’t take a potion for these Tommy.”

“That’s a shame, I was about to ask where you got the potion from.”

“There’s no potion, Tommy. These are- these are my real wings.”

Tommy’s face fell into an expression of shock as the boy took in what Quackity said.

“You’ve got wings? Like a hybrid?”

“Yeah.”

And just as quickly, his face shot back up, Tommy _beaming_ as he said, “That’s so cool! Hey, why’d you never show them to anyone before?”

_I didn’t show them because they’re ugly._

“Hybrids are kinda a big deal in the smaller servers. Bigger SMPs don’t tend to mess with them, but I was still kinda nervous to show them when I arrived.”

_They’re ugly they’re ugly they’re ugly-_

“They’re so cool! You reckon you could take me flying one day?”

_They’re- cool?_

Quackity let out a shocked laugh, caught off guard by how _normal_ Tommy’s reaction was.

He was expecting prolonged shock, sneers, insults.

He wasn’t expecting a classic Tommy reaction- full of laughter, smiles, inane remarks.

“You can’t even see what they look like! They’re all wrapped up in bandages, Big T.”

“Well, I still reckon they’re cool. If you’re not in the mood to fly, I could show you around New L’Manburg. Maybe you can find a plot to build a house on!”

“Let’s go check that out then,” Quackity said, the two beginning to get up from the bench, Quackity grabbing onto Tommy’s arm for support. “Even if I didn’t have the bandages, I don’t think I have the energy to fly.”

And then he dropped to the ground, taking Tommy down with him as his grip on the boy’s arm instinctively tightened.

“Or stand, it seems.”

Tommy slid one of his arms under both of Quackity’s before jumping up, bringing the hybrid back up with him.

“I’ll be your new legs then, big man. Let’s head out!”

~~~

It was on that walk that Quackity ran into Wilbur.

Or rather, Ghostbur, as the ghoul had endearingly been renamed.

He didn’t seem to remember anything, as Quackity witnessed from his cheerful demeanor.

_( “I was beginning to build my house, and I just- I heard him at the spawn, picking flowers. I figured I should bring him back here. I think- he doesn’t seem to remember much, only the good memories he has of the SMP.”_

_“Does he remember you?”_

_“No, I don’t think so.”_

_“Fuck, I’m sorry, Fundy.” )_

“What happened to your wings, Quackity?”

“I- uh, fell off the podium over there.”

“That’s horrible! I’m sure they’re beautiful, it’s a shame you can’t fly with them now.”

Quackity internally cringed. Ghostbur was so _kind,_ it was hard to imagine that just two days prior, he had been inhabiting the body of the man who blew up the country they were currently rebuilding.

“So, what do you remember about L’Manburg, Ghostbur?”

“Not much. I remember the revolution, and winning it. I remember Tommy and I preparing for the election, and getting ready to read out the votes. I remember Niki, and her bakery,” Ghostbur listed, Quackity noting the faint smile that appeared on his face from the mention of Niki. “I remember building walls, but I don’t see them, unless we expanded?”

“Nah, they were just taken down, although we did have plans to expand them once. You and I actually disagreed about the whole notion of the walls, actually.”

“Really? What for?”

_“Quackity! Get up here, the view of L’Manburg is great from up high!”_

_Quackity laughed, Wilbur’s enthusiasm for L’Manberg infecting him. “I’ll reward myself with the view once I win the election,” Quackity joked, secretly gleeful when his remark got Wilbur to laugh. “You won’t be up there much longer!”_

_“But if I win, you’ll never get the opportunity to come up here,” Wilbur teased back. “Come on, you’ll love it.”_

_Quackity let out an exaggerated sigh. “You’ve convinced me, Soot. If only you weren’t so lovable.”_

_Wilbur laughed again, watching Quackity as he climbed up the ladder. “My dad says I could get away with murder with my charm.”_

_“Your dad was right,” Quackity replied, reaching the top and pulling himself up next to Wilbur before looking out to the landscape. “And you were right about the view, it really is gorgeous.”_

_“Yeah, it’s amazing how bright the sun is. There’s not a cloud in the sky too! You would never know that it was pouring outside yesterday.”_

_“It rained yesterday?”_

_Wilbur giggled at that. “I forget it’s only your first day here, although your confusion only proves my point.”_

_Quackity pushed lightly at Wilbur, giggling from their light banter. “Seriously though, there’s literally no trace that there was any rain-”_

_And then Quackity stepped backwards and into a puddle of water that had formed from yesterday’s rain, his hands missing the short safety railing from the wall as he slipped backward and fell._

_In the split second it took him to fall from the sky, Quackity looked up and locked eyes with a terrified Wilbur, and decided as he hit the floor that he hated the walls._

_He wanted them gone._

“I just didn’t like them that much, but I did try to expand them later. Didn’t get too far, though.”

“Hey, if you ever finish expanding them, maybe you can jump and fly from them!”

“I actually haven’t been able to fly for awhile, but maybe I can get Philza to reset my wings before they fully heal so I can.”

“Why haven’t you been able to fly?”

_He could still feel how hard the dirt floor was against his back, against his wings._

_Wilbur told him he thought he had broken his back from the snapping noise he heard when Quackity fell._

_But Quackity wasn’t ready to share that he had wings yet, so he smiled and said a skeleton must’ve gotten unlucky the same time he fell, and rewrapped his broken wings when Wilbur left, the tightness increasing his pain, the bones in his wings healing in such a way that stopped him from flying._

“Broke my wings on my way to L’Manburg. So, are you thinking of building a house?”

“I like the plot right here, actually!”

“Hey, I like this plot too! Maybe we can be roommates~”

~~~

Dawn was rising over the SMP when Philza returned.

Ghostbur had left Quackity awhile ago, but the latter was talking to Tubbo when Philza had arrived.

“So, what’s my first task as the Sexytary of State?”

“I should not have let you choose your own title, shouldn’t have I?”

“Nope.”

“Hey guys,” Philza awkwardly jumped in, having walked up on the two while they were conversing.

“Hey, Phil! I was leaving to go find Tommy, but Quackity was about to start building his house, right Quackity?”

Quackity let out a quick laugh, hoping to hide the wince he let out at the idea of getting up to build. Or getting up, really. “Maybe a little later, Tubbo. Tell Tommy I said hi.”

Tubbo promised to do so, and set off, the rising sun making his horns shine a golden brown.

Quackity waited until Tubbo had passed the podium, then turned to look up at the standing Philza, whose face had faded into one of an almost angry disappointment.

“I told you to not leave.”

“I feel fine!”

“And you’re sitting on the floor because?”

“... Because I can’t walk without someone helping me.”

“You still want to say you feel fine?”

“... No.”

Bringing a hand up to his face and sighing, Philza pulled Quackity up, steadying him when he stumbled. 

“Let’s take you back to the podium, alright?”

“Actually, I was wondering if...”

“If what, Quackity?”

“If you could take me to Techno?”

~~~

“So I no longer have the secret pleasure of being the only person you didn’t hide your wings around?”

“Unfortunately not. Sorry man.”

“You just had to go and nearly get blown up, didn’t you, Quackity?”

Quackity let out a giggle from Techno’s sarcastic response. “You’re just sad because you didn’t get the opportunity to do it to me yourself. The Blood God would’ve gotten a kick out of that.”

Techno nudged Quackity’s shoulder with his tusks while the latter laughed at his own joke. “Don’t go spilling my secret now.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t.”

Techno let out a light smile at that. “I know you won’t.”

The two were sitting in Pogtopia, or at least its remains.

_( “And you thought it would be funny to press all the buttons for what reason Quackity?”_

_“Schlatt was drunk, like, all the time! I thought there was no way he would know how to set up TNT.”_

_“You know, I was told I was stupid for getting a major in English, but I’m pretty sure you actually got a degree in Stupidity.”_

_“Don’t beat me up when I’m down, man.” )_

“Where do you think you’ll go?”

“I don’t really see myself leaving this server. I’m not exactly welcome on any other servers, either. Most of them ban you when you spawn Withers to spite the government.”

“So what, you’ll go into hiding?”

“It’s not like I wasn’t already hiding, I’ll be fine. I won’t pull a Wilbur on you, I promise.”

“You better not break that promise,” Quackity joked. “There seems to be a direct correlation between Wilbur and my wings breaking.”

Techno let out a light laugh from that, although his amusement died quickly when he saw Quackity’s face change from content to confused.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s just- it’s all so weird, isn’t it? You’re on the run for being an anarchist, Wilbur doesn’t remember anything, Tubbo is president, George is king? Everything’s just been thrown off. It’s like we were a stack of papers, and someone just fucking picked us up and threw us into the air. How the hell do we even move forward with this?”

“First, on the run for being an anarchist and also setting Withers on everyone. Second, you just gotta wait for the storm to abate, or for the papers to stop floating and fall down to the ground, if we want to stick with your metaphor.”

Techno reached over to a knocked-over chest, rummaging around until he found a book. Ripping out a couple of pages, he threw them all into the air, the pages floating down as he continued talking.

“Some will float straight down and will be ready from the get go, others might get sidetracked, blown away. But eventually, all the pages will be on the ground, and someone will just have to gather them all back together and continue moving forward.”

Quackity watched as the pages floated back down to the ground, him and Techno gathering them together when they all reached the floor. Putting the pages back in the book before tossing it back into the chest, Techno turned back to Quackity. 

“There was probably a prettier metaphor we could’ve used, but I hope that served its point. Physically, you’re on the ground, but you’re still floating, getting thrown backwards. Just give yourself time to reach the ground, and wait for the right time to move forward.”

~~~

Quackity was back on the podium. 

Night had fallen again when Philza took him back to L’Manburg, but Quackity had convinced him to take him to the top of the podium, wanting to watch the stars.

Philza had left him halfway through the night, wanting to go chat with Ghostbur.

_( “If I get tired, I can walk myself back down the stairs.”_

_“Are you sure?”_

_“I’m sure, Phil.”_

_“Alright then. Goodnight, Quackity.”_

_“Phil?”_

_“Yeah, Quackity?”_

_“Thank you.” )_

But Quackity hadn’t felt tired, so he stayed on the podium the entire night, watching the stars fade as the sun began to shine.

Quackity looked back down to the revamped plaza, the early risers of the SMP walking through.

_Some will float straight down and will be ready from the get go._

Quackity saw a wide-awake Tubbo dragging a tired Tommy behind him, chatting about their plans for the day.

_Others might get sidetracked, blown away._

Quackity looked back to the sky, a cold wind hitting him as a cloud covered the sun.

_You’re still floating, getting thrown backwards._

He was floating, thrown backwards by falling from the walls and his wings healing wrong and Schlatt’s harsh words and the TNT and his wings breaking again.

But then he was falling, grounded by Philza’s kindness and Tommy’s enthusiasm and Ghostbur’s cheerfulness and Techno’s friendship.

Quackity had finally fallen back to the ground, and pulling himself up, he risked taking that step forward and off of the podium again.

The ground was still under his feet, and he kept moving forward.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading all the way to the end!  
> if you’re looking for a continuation of the story, you can check out my other fic for a technoblade & quackity centric storyline.  
> make sure to comment! constructive criticism would be appreciated, but i also love hearing what you guys liked about the fic :)


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